This week I decided to concentrate on the early 1700s in Achada to see if I could take my tree back any further in that village. It’s becoming clear to me that many of my lines originate in other villages. I wanted to focus my work on the lines that I know stayed in Achada…
The Demotion of X, Y, and Z in Portuguese Names
I’ve been working exclusively with the records of Achada in the Azores for the last month. I’ve worked from the 1870s back to the early 1700s. I’m getting a snapshot of spelling conventions and how things change over time. It’s interesting to me to see how widely used the letters x, y, and z were…
Can you make out this Azorean first name?
I hope there are some knowledgeable Azorean/Portuguese researchers reading this post today. I’m researching the baptismal records for Achada, Nordeste, Sao Miguel Island, Azores. The year is 1718. Today I came across an entry which may or may not be related to my Almeyda/Almeida line. For the life of me I cannot make out the…
It was bound to happen
I’ve gone through many pages of the baptismal and marriage books for Achada, Nordeste. Some pages are better than others. Up until now I’ve avoided finding a match that was unreadable. Until now. Looks a bit like one of the better fragments from the Dead Sea Scrolls, doesn’t it? It’s a baptismal record for the…
2012 was a Great Genealogy Year For Me
As I begin the new year, I thought it would be interesting to look back on some of my genealogy research achievements. As a California and Hawaii researcher, it sometimes gets a bit lonely researching online exclusively. Databases and indexes for the areas I need are slow to become available. It doesn’t help that my…